The mishap actually occurred only on their second move when Cezeron dipped her and the halter came loose, exposing a part of her breast. However, stopping would have meant losing five precious points so they pushed on.

“It was kind of like my worst nightmare happening at the Olympics,” she told reporters afterwards. And while she was visibly rattled, it’s not clear whether it was because she almost exposed herself to the world, or the fact that they could have won the gold if not for the wardrobe malfunction.

The French pair scored 81.93 but it’s clear that the risk of exposing her breast limited their movements.

Even their coach, Marie-France Dubreuil, noticed it.

“Instead of dancing and being in the moment, they were just trying to keep it together,” the coach said. “There was not the freedom of movement they normally have.”

But Dubreuil said that Papadakis had “nerves of steel” for continuing on with the performance instead of stopping.

However, as The Guardian noted, the scoring system in figure skating doesn’t only take note of the performance and the aesthetics but also the costume. And because there was a wardrobe malfunction, it affected their overall score. They could likely have won the gold considering that Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir only scored 83.67 points.

“It’s just frustrating to miss a few points because of a costume issue,” Cizeron said. “It is not what we get ready for when we train.”

This was the second wardrobe malfunction in figure skating. The first instance occurred with the South Korean pair of Yura Min and Alexander Gamelin.